Schalke's Coke agrees loan move to Levante

Schalke have confirmed that Spanish utility man Coke will join Spanish side Levante on a six-month loan deal in January.

The 30-year-old’s time in Gelsenkirchen has been blighted by injuries since his arrival in 2016. The loan deal is intended to give him some much-needed playing time.

Coke joined the Royal Blues following a highly successful spell at Sevilla, where he won three UEFA Europa League titles, scoring twice and captaining his team in the third of those triumphs, a 3-1 win against Liverpool.

Injury misfortune befell immediately at Schalke, however, as he ruptured a cruciate knee ligament in his very first friendly appearance for the club. Consequently, Coke was made to wait until April 2017 for his competitive debut, and he has since played just nine times in the Bundesliga in total, seeing only a minute of top-flight action this term.

With Daniel Caligiuri, Benjamin Stambouli and Thilo Kehrer for competition, the right-sided defender, whose contract will the Royal Blues runs until summer 2019, will now be hoping to make up for lost time in La Liga.